Nokia announce new features coming to existing Lumia devices

Nokia have just a announced through their Conversations website that existing Lumia phones will get some sweet new feature updates. The new features announced will include addition Bluetooth capabilities, a ringtone maker and of course the new Windows Phone 8 start screen aka the 7.8 OS refresh.

Nokia are not forgetting about their existing customers, they made this clear at the launch of Windows Phone 8 and now we’re seeing them keep to their word.

Here is the list of new features announced:

A new Start screen look and feel, familiar from Windows Phone 8, giving you a whole new look the moment you unlock your phone

Ringtone maker app to selected markets to create a personal ringtone

Contact share app updated to support sharing over Bluetooth in addition to SMS and email

The update will be applicable to owners of the Lumia 610, 710, 800 and 900 devices.

If you tuned into the Nokia Windows Phone 8 event you would have seen their Cinemagraph app being demoed. If you didn’t, it is a neat little camera app that allows the user to highlight certain parts of a scene and animate it. Well that’s coming to existing devices, as are some “additional surprises” to help make shooting and sharing as easy as possible. Intriguing and exciting.

Unfortunately Nokia weren’t able to share when we can expect these updates, as its obviously part of the Windows Phone 7.8 update we have still to hear for certain when they will roll out. That will be down to Microsoft rather than Nokia.

I wish they would get the official announcments of features out of the way. People who may be swayed by some particular thing are going to be lost to the iHype by this time next week. MS is losing critical time right now as few outside of us fans will have the anticipation still fresh in mind when they finally can get the 920 / 820.

Some of these were announced at the New York event, you even see Shields using a black Lumia 900 demoing the features (during the time they couldn't get the connection working).
One thing that's nice is that ringtone maker. I'm wondering if it will just be a music trimmer and/or a music composer like Nokia phones have had before. That was really fun to mess around with.
Seriously with all these updates, 7.8 is starting to look more like 8 but just watered down, no completely separate.

This is why I will switch to a 920 as soon as possible... if I can get a gray one.
Love my Focus and even if it's plastic it's solid dropped it many times, not afraid to let my friend's baby ''play'' with it. but Nokia starting this fall for me :D I cannot hardly wait.

Hey guys...when i went to read the actual article i saw that the last paragraph mentioned exclusive apps from Bloomberg, Whatsapp etc. If my memory serves me right, these were announced only for WP8 phones from Nokia right...? Does mentioning these apps in this article mean its coming along with WP 7.8 to the current lumia phones...??

Ugh, I'm so tired of hearing about these Lumia exclusives. I want one so bad but I'm not wasting my upgrade with the 920 right around the corner.
November cant come soon enough so I can get all this exclusive awesomeness.

Kind of expected, most Lumia devices are below 12 months old, so they should at least bring new features for 6-12 more months... otherwise they would really piss off people with reason...
I sure hope these features are deployed promptly fast to end users, cause all this MS/Nokia/Carrier deal is definetively more appealing to iFruit owners who get their updates directly from the source when they are annouced (or few days later...)

Yikes, Nokia strikes again. Them other WP OEMs need to step it up hardcore. Problem is with the other OEMs, they have alot going in in Android. NOKIA Barry has much going on elsewhere so they can really put in 100 percent. Which is great for WP owners. Folks that don't have a Nokia device are looking at them like ****. I made a mistake lol. We will see if Sammy and HTC are really going to put more into WP. But I doubt they will do as much as Nokia.

Microsoft needs to buy Nokia and allow them to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Nokia shows the ability to execute in ways Microsoft is simply too slow. Nokia has the right stuff but this is also a game of advertising and those funds should be spent showing how good WP is compared to iPhone and Droid OS.

I said it before...if you want the best WP experience you have to go NOKIA....WELL they better have the 7.8 out there real soon cause as soon as the 920 comes out im adding that beautiful thing to my family plan...i couldn't believe im saving more money with additional line via att

Nokia have been the best OEM for WP for a while now and a blessing to the OS.
MS have repeatedly failed Nokia, the loyal consumers and themselves with their own lack of support. Giving features that should be exclusives, to other OSes under the guise of business.
Last time I checked, exclusivity didn't hurt Apple.
And why can't they find a good ad agency? Google just released an ad about some girl going back to school and corresponding with her dad using all the google services. MS has all of them as well but the average consumer doesn't know it. They're busy going to google chrome on a windows PC to use their services instead!!
If WP8 fails, it will be purely MS's fault as it is awesome. But no one knows about it...

My take is that, even with a little less than 2 months before WP8 is supposed to launch, WP8 still hasn't gone RTM. There's also the lack of the full sdk > possibly less quality WP8 apps at launch. Notice all the complaints about no pricing or release date for the Lumia 920? You can chalk up the release date problem to Microsoft still developing WP8.

Microsoft haven’t detailed the 7.8 update plans fully. But we know all devices will at least get the new start screen. I suspect the Bluetooth update could go out to other devices also but we have nothing to confirm that. RB

Hope blutooth's getting an upgrade. Used to sending files with my old stoneage wm6.5 :-) miss that.
Guess I end's up with a 920, only don't like that's no radio onboard...:-/
Else seems like a phone that defines a new standard in mobile phones :-)

Well, that is at least something we HTC owners had from the beginning... Too bad they didn't bother to continue to create new features and apps for us as Nokia did, which is why I will be jumping on the Nokia bandwagon first chance I get.

Other OEM's can also bring this kind of functionality to their WP7 devices. If they dont that is Nothing to do with Nokia, or even MS apart from not being built into the OS already. But if Nokia can do it, so can Samsung and HTC.

There should be no anger or negative feeling about this, these are Nokia developed features, just like HTC's much vaunted Sound enhancer. You dont see Nokia owners crying that they dont have that app on their phones, do you? Lets be honest and recognise that this is Nokia supporting their Lumia owners, as they said they would.

That is something I have seen very little of (definitely nowhere near the almost universal moaning about Nokia exclusives) and in fact the majority of Lumia owners seem quite satisfied with the sound quality. And even then Nokia demoed an equaliser function in Nokia music so when that hits that "advantage" too will be negated for those who viewed it as such. So once again Nokia's support is a plus.